The Associated Press
Beth Harris
LOS ANGELES–With Blake Griffin, Patrick Beverley, and Danilo Gallinari sidelined by injuries, playing hard has to be the L.A. Clippers’ calling card.
Montrezl Harrell scored 17 points as the Clippers rallied over the final 3:21 to beat Toronto 96-91 last night–snapping the Raptors’ six-game winning streak.
“We scrapped, we played hard, we got the loose balls, we got the 50-50 game, we took charges, we created turnovers, got baskets,” Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers said.
“That’s who we have to be right now, and our guys have bought into it.”
DeAndre Jordan had 14 points and 17 rebounds for the Clippers.
Their back-ups outscored Toronto’s reserves 50-17, led by Harrell and Lou Williams, who also had 17 points.
“Our second group tries to bring a lot of energy and play as hard as we can,” Harrell noted.
“We know we’re going to make some mistakes, we know we have some younger guys who aren’t accustomed to playing this amount of minutes,” he added.
“Everyone has that next-man-up mentality.”
Milos Teodosic scored 12 points in his return after missing 22 games with a left foot injury.
His three-pointer with 40 seconds left extended the Clippers’ lead to 91-87.
Jordan fouled Kyle Lowry in the lane, and he made one of two free throws to make it 91-88.
Williams made two free throws before C.J. Miles hit a three-pointer from the right corner that brought the Raptors to 93-91.
But the injury-plagued Clippers went 3-for-4 at the free-throw line to hang on for their second win in a row.
Harrell gave L.A. a scare when he went down near the baseline early in the fourth quarter.
He got up eventually and stayed in the game.
Jonas Valanciunas had 23 points and 15 rebounds for the Raptors, who led by 13 points in the first half.
Serge Ibaka and DeMar DeRozan each scored 17 points.
“We were playing in mud. Psychologically, we were a step behind,” admitted Raptors’ coach Dwane Casey.
“After we lost that lead, we couldn’t get our traction back.”
The Raptors were up 81-74 early in the fourth on seven-straight points, including consecutive baskets by Valanciunas.
But Teodosic and Austin Rivers hit three-pointers, and Sam Dekker made a pair of free throws, to pull the Clippers into an 82-82 tie.
They tied it again at 84-all on Dekker’s baseline shovel pass to Jordan, who dunked.
“We kept a high-scoring team under 100 points. That’s pretty good, man,” Austin Rivers said.
“This is the biggest win for us,” he added. “We kept playing and fighting.”
The Raptors, who fell to 2-1 in the second game of a back-to-back, visit Phoenix tomorrow to wrap up their four-game trip.
Elsewhere in the NBA, Charlotte beat Oklahoma City 116-103, Chicago dumped Boston 108-85, Houston topped New Orleans 130-123, Miami bounced Memphis 107-82, and Golden State downed Portland 111-104.
